K8MFO/XV5 1969 Vietnam

These cards were printed by K8JP...V31JP....then K8HKM...who is on a tape "loud and clear" when I worked him in 1969 from a MARS station that was shut down for the night! Also worked many others from that site.

Vietnam was on the "banned list" while I was there and there was also a military directive prohibiting amateur radio operation by members of the military. So, of course I was active on the air, mostly from a MARS station at Bien Hoa, perhaps 20 miles north of Saigon. I knew a guy from Lansing MI who was one of the MARS operators, and he would let me in after hours for some "propagation tests". Had some great times there. One night I ran into an "undercover officer" in an EM Club, and discovered he was a W7 DXer. We got into the MARS station and put on quite a little "mini DXpedition", using a very exotic call sign. I'm quite sure that the call was reported in QST and perhaps CQ. I wish that I remembered the W7's call -- he was a very good operator, and we had a great time. Then the MARS station was moved to the northern part of the country.

Below is me at the MARS station in Bien Hoa. Outside there was a 60 foot telephone pole with a log periodic fixed on the USA. OH YES, it worked with the Henry supplying some RF! Note the straight key strapped to my leg -- the only key I could find on short notice. Later W8QQL sent me a homebrew transistorized W9TO keyer. It was nice to have the remote VFO for the KWM2 so that I could operate split while conducting "propagation tests"...

Courtesy of K8MFO